Return to Peaceful Conquerors
This painting typifies the finest achievement of the late-fourteenth-century western Indian style. It is a masterful rendering of a popular subject, the bathing of Mahavira at birth. The jina's identity is indicated by the pair of kneeling buffalo, his cognitive symbol. The infant is seated on the lap of the presiding god Shakra (Indra), and two attendant gods (further manifestations of Shakra) hold lustration vessels aloft in anticipation of his first bath (a legend shared with early Buddhism). An innovation of this period is the introduction of fantastic rocks to indicate the celestial Mount Meru—the setting for this divine abhisheka—a mannerism absorbed from Iranian paintings of the period.
This Jain savior is meditating on a jeweled cushion atop a lion-supported throne. He has the auspicious markings (lakshanas) of an Enlightened Being, especially the ushnisha denoting sacred wisdom. He sits in a yogic posture, a pan-Indian sign of a spiritually advanced being, and before him, supported on a lotus platform, are two recumbent deer flanking a sacred wheel (dharmachakra), the latter emblematic, as in Buddhism, of sacred teachings. Projecting lotus stems support the principal attendees commonly linked to Neminatha: the yaksha Gomedha and his consort, the yakshi Ambika, supporting a standing infant. On the reverse of the base is an incomplete donor's Sanskrit inscription in seventh-century script.
The jina is represented as a supreme yoga and acharya, an illustrious religious teacher. Elevated on a stepped, cushioned throne supported by lions and elephants, symbols of bravery and strength, this tirthankara embodies the Jain virtue of spiritual wisdom. An openwork back plate (now missing) would have evoked the heavenly palace in which he resides, accompanied by celestial adorers. His principal attendants—a seated yaksha and yakshi—flank the throne, and kneeling deer listen to the teachings symbolized by the wheel (dharmachakra) at the center of the throne pedestal. This icon was once gilded—traces can still be detected—in keeping with the desire that it emit a sacred aura like that achieved by light reflecting off gold. Indian religions have long seen the ability to absorb and radiate light as indicative of divinity.
At the heart of daily Jain religious observance is the veneration of the image of the jina, the conceptual basis of which is the pan-Indian ideal of the yogic ascetic. This ancient practice, celebrated in the Vedas, equates the acquisition of superior knowledge ("spiritual wisdom") with the pursuit of advanced forms of meditation, austerities, and withdrawal from the material comforts of a householder's life. Those who attain such a state are respected and revered. In Jainism twenty-four liberated souls are recognized as having attained this level and are worshipped as the twenty-four tirthankaras, or "ford-crossers."
This Digambara icon from the Deccan Plateau shows a jina meditating beneath a flowering tree, following the conventions seen in Buddhist sculptures of the period. As in Buddhist images, the jina is flanked by attendants—the nature-deity yaksha and yakshi replacing the bodhisattvas—and fly-whisk bearers gesturing their readiness to fan him. A lion-supported throne and triple umbrellas confirm the regal status. Rock-cut versions of such compositions appear frequently in the Pandyan territories of northern Tamil Nadu in the eighth and ninth centuries, a date range to which this bronze can be assigned.
Parsvanatha, the twenty-third jina, is shown standing in body-abandonment meditation posture (kayotsarga) in a forest, enduring a storm sent by an evil force. He receives shelter from the naga-king Dharana, who coils his snake body around the jina and provides a canopy with his seven-hooded head. This well-known story is shared with Buddhism, and we can only speculate as to which came first; certainly Jains claim that the antiquity of Parsvanatha antedates that of the Buddha by several centuries. Indeed, Parsvanatha is claimed to have lived in the sixth century B.C.E. and may well be the original founder of Jainism, rather than Mahavira, a near contemporary of the Buddha.
The oldest Jain image in the Metropolitan Museum's collection also happens to be the earliest known representation of the subject in Jain art, that of Bahubali, a prince who attained the stature of a perfected being (siddha). Although never admitted to the pantheon of twenty-four tirthankaras, he nonetheless attained jina-like status. The legend of Bahubali tells of a prince who renounces violence after coming close to slaying his brother Bharata in a battle of succession and then renounces pride and its expression—violence to other living creatures. Embracing ahimsa (nonviolence) he meditates in the "body-abandonment" posture in a forest and is entwined by vines and hosts birds that nest in his hair until he attains moksha.This diminutive icon is part of a tradition that inspired the largest rock-cut icon in the Indian subcontinent, the Bahubali at Shravana Belgola, in Karnataka, a sixty-foot-high image sculpted from living rock in the tenth century. This icon has been ritually lustrated in the mahamastakabhisheka festival every twelfth year since that time, most recently celebrated in 2006.
The Deccan Plateau and Tamil Nadu were strongholds of the Digambara sect, the "sky clad," or those who go naked. Jainism prospered in the south, attracting patronage from Pandyan and other rulers throughout the first millennium. Most images from that region depict jinas as fully committed renunciants, unencumbered by material possessions. Images of a tirthankara standing in the austerity meditation "body-abandonment" posture are among the most understated and beautiful of the period, and thus successfully embody the essence of the doctrine of renunciation of the material world.
The story of Mahavira as recounted by Hemachandra tells of the jina's father, King Siddharta, summoning astrologers to his court to interpret Queen Trisala's dreams of a future son. They foretell that their son will be either a universal ruler (cakravartin) or a universal religious savior, a jina. The scene is dynamic and engaging, with a masterful control of form-defining line and sensitive use of gesture. Both figures wear finely embroidered translucent muslins and are sheltered by honorific umbrellas.
The jina Mahavira was conceived by a Brahmani woman; Indra determined that the embryo should be transferred to a royal woman, Queen Trisala. He appointed the deer-headed divinity Harinaigamesin, his ambassador and chief of infantry, to perform this delicate task. Embryos were exchanged between the two women and Mahavira was brought full term and born to King Siddharta and Queen Trisala.
Relieved by a sign from Mahavira that all is well, Queen Trisala—attended by handmaids—celebrates by richly dressing and tending to her makeup, raising a mirror to admire the result. The joyous Trisala has resumed her throne, a wicker stool, and is installed in a grand palace interior indicated by an elaborate cusped arch.
Upon arriving in the forest, Mahavira descends from the palanquin and sits beneath an asoka tree on high ground. He discards his princely attire and jewels and plucks out his hair in three clutches, which are collected in a diamond urn by the kneeling Shakra. The preservation of Mahariva's discarded jewels and hair would seem to be an allusion to the memory of the practice of relic worship, which, though central to early Buddhist worship, is not otherwise acknowledged in Jainism.
Before his conversion to Jainism, Sthulabhadra, a resident of Pataliputra (modern Patna) around the fourth century B.C.E., lived with the courtesan Kosa. As a penance for his former life and a test of his commitment to his new vow of chastity, he chose to reside in Kosa's house during the rainy season, and remained unmoved by her attempts at seduction. When the king died, Kosa was gifted to one of his charioteers, who so admired her respect for Sthulabhadra that he, too, converted to Jainism and become a monk, and she, a nun. Sthulabhadra became a great acharya (an illustrious religious teacher) and eventually the head of the sangha (community of monks and nuns). This moralizing story incidentally celebrates the charioteer's archery skills and Kosa's unsurpassed qualities as a dancer, neither of which could match the spiritual accomplishments of Sthulabhadra.
Aristanemi, the incarnate twenty-second jina Neminatha, is shown on horseback approaching the pavilion in which his bride, Rajamati, awaits. She is beautifully attired in anticipation of the arrival of the groom. He is similarly dressed and garlanded in preparation of the marriage ceremony. Upon hearing the cries of distressed animals corralled for slaughter for the wedding feast, he flees on his chariot, and his compassion determines that he henceforth live as a mendicant. He attained siddha-hood and joined the ranks of the tirthankaras.
This scene depicts the city of Ujjayini (Ujjain), the capital of Malwa, in which the evil king Gardabhilla is seated while under siege from the armies of the Shahi princes. The ninety-six princes of the Saka clan crossed the Indus River from the northwest and entered western India at the invitation of the Jain monk Kalakacarya, whose sister, a nun, had been abducted by the king of Ujjain. The armies of the Saka clan attacked Ujjain, and a Shahi prince is shown slaying the magic she-ass that guarded the city gate, bringing defeat to the city. The evil king is spared, but condemned to an endless cycle of miserable rebirths.
In Jain cosmology, Shakra's heaven is a blissful place where the jinas reside for eternity. It is populated by celestial dancers, seen here as beautiful maidens sensuously poised in the text margins. On the lower folio a male dancer accompanies the female dancers. These scenes are echoed in the textual descriptions of the Kalpasutra celebrating the jina Mahavira. The manuscript displays innovative use of red, blue, and green marginal designs that anticipate sixteenth-century styles and a lavish use of gold script on a red ground.
This spectacular painted textile (kalamkari), more than eighteen feet long, was produced exclusively, it would seem on current evidence, for export to island Southeast Asia. To date, all examples have been found in Indonesia. Jain pictorial cloths of this type are not recorded in India, but they probably began their existence serving Jain temples as hangings displayed during the celebration of Paryushana and other festivals. In such contexts they would have been intended to depict the heavenly entertainers (apsaras), who perform in Indra's heaven, where the jinas reside. In the installation of icon ceremonies, these ensembles are identified as the dikkumari, celestial maids who attend Mahavira's birth.The conventions that characterize medieval Jain painting are well preserved here, suggesting shared skills across the painting ateliers and kalamkari workshops of Ahmedabad and Cambay, the centers of Gujarat's textile industry.